ShortList is supported by you, our amazing readers. When you click through the links on our site and make a purchase we may earn a commission. Learn more

Turns out your festival wristbands are incubators for bacteria

How much disease have you been proudly sporting on your arm?

Turns out your festival wristbands are incubators for bacteria
11 August 2016

Ah festival wristbands. Those wearable memories, those little reminders of the summers that seemed to roll on forever.

Every time you look down at your arm, your mind is transported back to a dozen weekends spent with all your pals, getting merry and watching your favourite bands smash it in the sunshine. And better still, everyone else can see your memories had and feel bitter every time you cheekily flash your good times in front of them. They're wonderful, aren't they? Well...

A small experiment by triple j using their very own Doctor Nick has found that they are actually incubators of germs.

"Worse case scenario is they will be loaded with bacteria," says Dr Nick with a big grin on his face, as you eye your forearm suspiciously. "You could also find e.coli!"

After whizzing one volunteer's bands through some scientific processes (diluting, petri dishes, etc), they found 600 million bits of bacteria on one, and 200 million on another. The memories are literally living on.

Get yourself some scissors and sever yourself from your past immediately. Or just pop them off and stick them in a scrapbook, as Dr Nick suggests.